Do you go to the gym because you want to lose weight? Do you spend time doing cardio exercises, like running on a treadmill, using a step machine, or working out on an elliptical machine?
If your goal is to lose weight by doing cardio, you might want to pay attention, because in my experience, most people who do cardio could burn more calories cleaning the house. Not only that, they would also have a clean house at the end of the hour.
Part of the problem is that conventional advice couldn’t be more wrong about how to train correctly to maximize fat loss. I did a little self-experiment, although I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect, that will help shed some light on what the best approach to cardio is if you want to lose weight.
My cardio exhale to burn calories.
There is a better approach, and I want to show it to you. In this article, I’ll use some of my workouts and actual calories burned and calories burned from fat to help demonstrate how to get the most out of your workout.
Let me start by explaining what I did. I took three different kids from workouts and compared the results. The comparison was made between high-intensity interval training (HIIT), long-distance interval training (LSD), and medium-distance interval training. I chose these three methods because the first two, HIIT and LSD, have been at the center of a debate in recent years, and there is a lot of controversy about which is better for weight loss.
I also added middle distance interval training, so we could see how this method compares to the others. I recorded each session and noted the duration of the workout, my heart rate, how many calories I burned, and the total calories burned from fat. I used my Polar FT60 heart rate monitor for this comparison test.
This experiment isn’t exact, but it doesn’t need to be either. It just needs to be consistent, so we can make an intelligent comparison between the three workouts. The point is don’t worry about the exact numbers used here. Your calorie burn is different from mine, your heart rate is different from mine, and your fitness is different from mine. The conclusions we draw are more important than the actual numbers used.
First, so we’re all on the same page, let’s take a look at what I mean when I say LSD, HIIT, and MDI.
Is HIIT the best?
High-intensity interval training is similar to speed training. Essentially, you run very “hard” and then rest and repeat the effort. The important thing to remember when doing HIIT is that “difficult” means at or near your maximum effort. That’s why I say it’s like speed training, you really have to bust your butt and work to your full potential. On the 1-10 level in terms of effort, HIIT is an 8-10, when done correctly.
A commonly used HIIT training method is to work hard for 1 minute and then recover for 1 minute. To burn fat, it’s best to slow down to a jog during the recovery period rather than stop altogether. You will burn more calories this way. This cycle of work and recovery is repeated for the duration of the workout.
You can do HIIT training on a variety of exercise equipment, if you don’t want to run. I like bikes and the elliptical machine for this type of training. It doesn’t matter what gear you have, it only matters that you reach an effort level of 8-10.
A benefit of HIIT training
One thing many people don’t realize is that an intense workout causes the body to burn calories post-workout, often referred to as the afterburn effect. Exercise is a process of breaking down the body and rebuilding it, but stronger. When you do intense exercise, the effect of breaking down the body is much greater and there is a greater need for repair. The energy used in this repair process burns additional calories, so intense exercise can have a fat-shedding effect for hours after your workout.
Both HIIT training and mid-distance interval training are intense enough to give a good afterburn effect.
The downside of HIIT
Due to the intense nature of HIIT, your body will need time to recover afterward. It’s not practical to do HIIT every day, and it’s difficult for even very fit people to do HIIT for a long time. So to burn more calories, you can’t just do more HIIT without overtraining. Because of this, there are calorie burn limits for HIIT.
Some very misinformed people will try to convince you that doing more HIIT is the answer to weight loss plateaus, but they are very wrong. His recommendation will lead to overtraining and overtraining is counterproductive for fat loss.
How did you rate HIIT?
My HIIT workout followed this pattern: 1 minute of intense running followed by 1 minute of easy recovery jogging. I did this for a total of 23 minutes.
Time: 23 minutes, without measured heating
Average heart rate: 158
Maximum heart rate: 168
Calories burned: 315
Calorie Fat: 31
LSD for fat loss
Now, just to be clear, when I talk about LSD for fat loss, it has nothing to do with illegal drugs. Therefore, I am not suggesting that you find the local drug dealer and start using drugs to lose weight. Rather, I am referring to long slow distance training (LSD).
LSD training is the most common approach to cardio training in most commercial gyms. It’s often called steady-state training, because you work out at the same pace throughout your entire workout.
LSD training is not very intense. The goal of LSD training is to exercise for long periods of time, and to do this we must avoid exhaustion, so the training is slower and easier. It is best to do LSD training at an intensity level somewhere around the 4-7 range.
The good thing about LSD
The great thing about LSD is that most people can do some kind of slow training. They can jog, walk, or even ride a bike for long periods of time, once they’ve built up a little bit of strength and endurance.
Also, LSD isn’t terribly intense, so it’s much easier to recover from. In fact, many athletes use LSD training as a recovery workout after previous intense workouts.
The bad thing about LSD
With the good comes the bad. Because LSD is not a high-intensity exercise, less post-workout repair is needed. Thus, we will burn fewer calories post-workout in the recovery process. The main benefit of LSD is the calories burned while exercising, because relatively few are burned later as a result of training.
How did LSD accumulate?
Since this was an LSD workout, there was relatively little variation in pace and heart rate throughout the entire workout.
Time: 46 minutes, without measured heating
Average heart rate: 122
Maximum heart rate: 131
Calories burned: 396
Calories from fat: 99
Is the MDI the best cardio exercise to burn fat?
Middle distance intervals are not very popular with fitness enthusiasts. You are more likely to see track athletes and middle distance runners doing this type of interval training. They are similar to HIIT in that there are work periods and rest periods, but different in that the work periods and rest periods are much longer. For example, a good program for soccer is 5 minutes of work with a 2-minute recovery jog.
When doing MDI, the important thing to remember is to try to maximize effort during the work period. I do this by measuring heart rate, but it can be done by estimating your work effort like we talked about with HIIT. An effort of 7-9 is the correct range for MDI.
MDI Benefits
You can burn a lot of calories with an MDI workout. Because of the pacing, you end up with a workout that’s relatively short, but covers a pretty good distance.
Also, just like HIIT, there is an afterburn effect when doing MDI. This means that you will continue to burn calories during the post-workout “healing process.”
Disadvantage of MDI
The disadvantage of MDI is that it is difficult. Not many people like to push themselves that hard for that long.
How were the half-distance intervals accumulated?
I wanted to make sure the duration of the workout was exactly the same as the HIIT test, so this workout was done for exactly 23 minutes. That was a bit of a lopsided number, so I did 4 sets of 4-minute intervals with a 1-minute recovery jog in between each set. I finished the session with a 3 minute gap, so I finished exactly at the 23 minute mark.
Time: 23 minutes, without measured heating
Average heart rate: 160
Maximum heart rate: 167
Calories burned: 321
Calories from fat: 32
So what does this mean and how do we know which one is better for burning fat?
First, let me point out that every workout burns a lot of calories. However, the LSD workout was twice as long as the HIIT and MDI workouts, and the results were not twice as good. In short, LSD is not an efficient exercise.
There was not much difference between HIIT and MDI. For athletic training purposes there are differences, but for fat loss, there is not.
Also, since I can’t measure calories burned in post-exercise recovery, it’s reasonable to assume that the HIIT and MDI workouts actually burned a few more calories than I’m showing. This is due to the afterburn effect. And while the numbers aren’t huge, it’s safe to assume that our total calories burned in HIIT and MDI workouts are relatively similar and close to the equivalent of what was burned in a much longer LSD workout.
LSD burned a higher percentage of fat. It burned 25% vs. 10% burned by MDI and HIIT. But, you have to spend more time on LSD training to see the benefit. So the question is whether all that extra time is worth burning a few more fat calories. In my opinion, that’s a pretty small gain for all the extra time you have to spend to get the benefit.
Which brings us to the big conclusion: HIIT and MDI are more efficient and give us a great way to burn calories. But, they are too demanding to do every day. LSD can be done every day, but you better clear your schedule because you will need more time. Unfortunately, for many people, long workouts 6 days a week are not an option.
Ultimately, you have to ask yourself two questions. Can you talk yourself into doing hard training like HIIT and MDI? And do you have time to do long workouts like LSD? If you also train with weights, you probably won’t. The combination of weights with LSD makes the training very long.
Now that you know how to do cardio to burn as much fat as possible, you’re ready to become a fat burning furnace. Just pick an exercise you enjoy, like biking or running, and get out there and do it.